Sitter Was Worried About Girl

She Questioned Mom Before 3-year-old Died

KISSIMMEE — Days before a 3-year-old Kissimmee girl's death, her baby sitter talked to the mother about suspicions that the child was being abused, state reports reveal.

Luis Montalvo was eventually charged with beating his girlfriend's daughter to death. Three days earlier, one of Walkiria Batista's baby sitters questioned the girl's mother, Sarai Vicente, about a black eye that was nearly swollen shut, records obtained from the Department of Children and Families show.

Translating for baby sitter Eddy Penn, 65, who does not speak English, her son Salvador said his mother feels guilty for what happened to Walkiria.

''My mother begged Sarai to look out for that little girl, and she only watched the children as a favor,'' he said.

Penn met Vicente in a supermarket checkout line. She also cared for Walkiria's older sister, whom the state removed from the Vicente home and placed with an aunt.

Unfamiliar with the way the child-care system works, Penn never contacted police about her concerns. Kissimmee police don't expect to file charges against Penn.

Vicente could not be reached for comment.

The injured right eye that Penn noticed Sept. 7 was not the same eye injured Sept. 10, the day Montalvo is accused of hitting the girl in the left eye, causing internal bleeding and her death.

Walkiria's death has become a symbol of the state's besieged child protective system - a system that officials admit failed to safeguard a child who suffered a fractured knee, a broken shoulder and severe hair loss months before she was killed. Doctors now suspect her hair had been torn out.

Department of Children and Families Secretary Edward A. Feaver launched an investigation of his agency's handling of the case.

Facts surrounding Walkiria's final days were included in the department's file on the Batista case, which The Orlando Sentinel requested through the Freedom of Information Act.

Penn told police after Walkiria died that she had confronted Vicente twice about the child's injuries - first about the black eye, and second about a bruise on the child's cheek two days later, reports state.

''Eddy asked Sarai if she had noticed Walkiria's eye,'' wrote Kissimmee police Detective Wes Erickson in his report, ''and Sarai told her that Walkiria just had an eye infection.''

After the second bruise was found, Walkiria told her sitter that Montalvo did it.

Montalvo remains in the Osceola County Jail charged with second-degree murder.

Eddy and Salvador Penn say they never met Montalvo, but memories of Walkiria still haunt them.

''When the baby was here she was really happy at this house,'' Salvador said. ''She laughed, played around and liked to watch my Disney videos, especially The Little Mermaid.''